Sonic Boom
by Babyuknowme13
Summary: Everyone knew about Sonic. She was a hero, a legend. The problem with legends is they are eventually watered down until their deeds become stories. Knuckles decides people should know Sonic though. He has no idea what he's getting into. Who is Sonic?
1. Serina V

LC; Well this might be my greatest achievment to date.

Sonic; Your writing what you think my past might be, cool!

Tails; Sonic! You shouldn't be happy about this!

Sonic; Why not? Someone's finally recognizes my awesomeness!

Tails; You don't know?

Sonic; Don't know what?

LC; Your a girl in my fic!

Sonic;...WHAT!

LC; Yeah, I have this love of gender bending. I guess I should've warned you!

Sonic; Forget that! I'm outta here! *Fails*

LC; Sorry but you signed my contract. I am allowed to toy with you until further notice.

Tails; Sonic, why didn't you read it before signing it!

Sonic; Reading is too slow!

LC: And that is how illiteracy bites you in the butt ladies and gentlemen!

Disclaimer; I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog! He's too fast for me to catch him. I'm catching up though!

Chapter 1: Be Free to Run.

Years before the event that seperated Earth and Mobius, before the gene bombs wrecked so many lives and enhanced so many others, there was a period of magic and wonderment. Here on Earth, a being lived with great power. He had the power, to peer into the future, although he was in turn powerless to interfere in its procedings.

One day, he saw something very strange indeed. A young, blue, hedgehog like creature. She ran at speeds unimaginable in his time and was good of heart. He knew then and there that this girl would be the deciding factor in his world's future. Would they all be destroyed, or perhaps she would save them all. Time would only tell.

"Sonic the Hedgehog, who are you? What made you?" It was the latter question that sparked this story, the one I know write using quill and ink. I didn't always like Sonic, in fact I thought she was a reckless, selfish, thrill seeking, poor excuse for a warrior. I guess that tells you how time can change your perspective.

My name is Knuckles the Echidna, guardian for the Master Emerald, protector of Angel island. I am old, ancient in the tongues of my people. My son, Kahul, is shaping up to be a very fine guardian and I look forward to retiring and allowing him to take my position. Ironically, I am the first of the brotherhood to actually retire.

I have fought in many battles, spilled blood, and expierienced great love. I have led a good life and am not afraid to die. However, there is something I feel must be done before the world continues forward, before it forgets.

I am here to write the story of Sonic the Hedgehog, her life from birth to death. She is a hero, and all too many times have heroes become little more than legend. With her gone, I feel as though its my duty to tell the world that she was _real._ She was a mobian, like you and me! She lived, she loved, and she died for what she truly believed in. I don't want anyone to forget what she lost and gave and earned in the name of Mobius.

The Master Emerald heard my grief and has agreed to give me what none know and fewer seek. I am here to write her past, as stated before. The Emerald will show me how she lived and I shall tell her story to everyone. Especially her son.

Sonic was a bright blue hedgehog female, one who ran at the speed of sound, as implied by her nickname. She valued freedom above everything else and would gladly die for her friends and family. She saved our world and many others more times than I can count, and maybe more than I even know.

That is what everyone knows about her, now here is something you may not have known. Sonic's real name was Serina V. Hedgehog and she was born a normal, dull brown. A normal hedgehog.

Here is where it gets interesting.

"I think Serina is a beautiful name for a little hedgehog girl." The ram doctor complimented the bed bound Bernadette Hedgehog.

"Thank you, she's named for her great grandmother." The soft spoken female said.

The ram nodded and wrote the name on his chart before clipping it onto the bed of the new born hedgehog. Serina was the last of her litter and on the small side, though not a runt. Size didn't matter to hedgehogs though. All they really cared about was health and she was perfectly healthy.

Three days later the husband, Jules, brought his family home. Home being an intricate assortment of tunnels where the entire subteranion community lived. The hedgehogs lived next door to the gophers on one side, and the meerkats on the other.

"Welcome home mother!" James, a son from an earlier litter, called out.

"Are these our new brothers and sisters?" Delila, from the last litter, asked.

"Yes, now come meet Sonia, Charley, Christopher, and Serina." Bernadette said, holding out the four young'uns. Serina began to cry.

The first seven years of Serina's life were loud and fast paced. Despite her smaller size, she was the first of her litter to crawl, then walk. Talking did not come as easily but she mastered that in time as well. As soon as words were open to her and she was mobile, it seemed nothing could stop her.

She was energetic, prone to tears when others were hurt around her, and seemed far more independent than any other young hedgehog!

This, while likable in most other families, was looked down upon in their community. Hedgehogs should be quiet, easily frightened of new things, and slightly defensive. Serina however, was loud, curious, and thick skinned. She was a source of both exasperation and shame to her family.

"Its not your fault Bernadette, there's one in every family." Gary Gopher assured the mother during a visit one time, Serina sitting just a few feet away.

"She's still young, there may be hope yet for a cure." Serina did not think she was sick. She didn't understand why her family always pushed her to the backrooms when friends came over. She didn't know why her father would constantly ask her if she'd like to sit down and read for a bit. She didn't know why her mother alwats gave her less treats than her brothers and sisters, though she knew it had something to do with the sugar.

Serina sighed before politely asking to be excused. As soon as the relieved 'go ahead' was given, she escaped through the front door and continued her personal mission.

The tunnels of their community were long and winding. They were so long that it was unheard of for children to leave their homes without an accompanying adult. Serina however was the exception. She loved the freedom of travelling the dark, dirt paths.

This was one of the few pleasures she was allowed to indulge in. Her parents had taken a lot of convincing for them to accept that she could travel without risk of exhaustion. Somehow she felt that instead of the hoped for pride, her family was only more put off by her success.

That didn't matter at the moment though, because she was doing something she enjoyed doing. She did something out there, in the tunnels where no one would see and discourage her. Serina the Hedgehog _ran._

Her arms spread out wide and the wind flowing through her quills, the rush of air in and out of her tiny chest and the pounding of her blood in her ears. The feeling of leaving behind all her worldly worries and fears, all her insecurities and frustrations in pleasing her family. All of that vanished with this feeling. Running was her dirty secret, her forbidden pleasure. She loved every step of it.

Stopping was always something she dreaded, ever since first running to the end of one hall. Every day she pushed herself a little further in an effort to stop time. She hated to stop running. She thought she was getting very good at it, but she doubted her parents and siblings would be happy for her.

She knew if they knew she was actually _running_ that an end would be put on her lone trips. Serina could not bear the thought. Losing this small taste of freedom seemed to her a crime she could not forgive, and so she kept this her secret.

When she stopped that day, she had broken her previous record and made it all the way to the Badger's home! That was nearly a mile from her house!

Her little limbs shook with the effort of walking home, but running wasn't an option. She was too tired, hungry, and cold to run right now. Serina made it home just before dinner, but was last in line. She had to make due with just some mashed potatoes and gravy, a bun, and a glass of milk. She didn't get a cup cake, like the rest of her siblings.

Serina had a lot of (silent) complaints about her family. They were all too boring and quiet, they all looked through her like she wasn't there, and she never got a dessert. One thing she couldn't complain about though, was nighttime.

All the children slept together, all in one big room of pillows and blankets and warm bodies. Sometimes the younger ones would kick or cry out, but normally they were all huddled together in security and comfort. Serina loved to cuddle next to her brothers and sisters, feeling their warm breath on her skin as she slept in ease.

She especially loved being the last to fall asleep! Everyone else loved sleeping a whole lot, so they closed their eyes immediatly, but not her. Nights like tonight, when every little hedgehog was fast asleep except for her, she loved.

She would stay up for a while and listen for a weaning baby to cry and she would comfort it before it woke her parents. She figured for all the trouble they went through for her during the day, she could take care of the young'uns at night.

Sure enough, a youngster named Nathaniel began to whimper in fear. She quickly got up and plucked him up from his litter mates and softly cooed until he quietened and stopped trying to curl up. When he was sleeping again she placed him down and returned to her spot in the mound to sleep. Everytime someone whimpered or curled though, she got up and comforted them until they slept again.

She would never know, but her younger siblings admired her for that.

The next morning she went to school with the other children. They climbed the stairs with help from older siblings and parents in order to make it to the bus stop in time. To Serina's eyes there were a hundred buses waiting to pick them all up and drive them to school. Serina was now in second grade, and she didn't like school very much except for P.E. class.

She always made sure to get a window seat. She loved seeing how fast the landscape would blur by. One day she hoped she'd be able to go that fast. Maybe even faster!

"E-Excuse me, can I sit with you big sister?" Serina turned to see Elizabeth, she was only five and was just starting school.

"Go ahead Elizabeth." Another way she was different from the rest of her family, she always remembered all her siblings' names. There were so many children that most of them were addressed by age and gender, but she named them all by name.

"Thank you." The chestnut hedgehog girl said thankfully. She didn't have any friends yet. She knew that her big sister was different from the rest of them, but she didn't see it as a totally bad thing. Big sister knew when to be quiet and never asked for more food and even helped her when she was afraid of the dark. Elizabeth thought that big sister was probably the most well liked sibling among the newer generation.

She also always remembered Elizabeth's name, something her own mother never accomplished without a hint.

Serina sighed inwardly in contentment as she felt how fast the bus was moving. They were speeding through the roads and she wished she was running beside it. Maybe that should be her new goal, since just running in the halls was getting stale.

Yeah, first she'd figure out how far away the school was from home in miles! After that she would practice running with a timer until she could go that far. She'd get up early to train and everything! She bet she could do it wothin a year!

School ended quickly enough, Serina asked her teacher Mr. Bear how far away the school was from the subteranian community and learned it was twenty five miles. She was slightly discouraged by the number. She had just managed one mile, it would take a long time to get twenty five in a reasonable amount of time.

When Serina got home she was surprised to find that the Badger's had come for a visit, but took it in stride. After all, her parents never said no to her leaving whenever company was over. Although sometimes they made a show of sending an older sibling with her. She hoped they'd send James, he didn't mind her as much as the others and usually wandered off to do something else.

"Mama, may I go outside to play?" She asked politely, holding a book to her chest for show. Her parents liked it when she impled she'd be doing hedgehog activities whenever other people were around. So whenever company was over, she excuse herself by saying she would go outside to 'play' and then leave the book around the corner.

"Take Noah with you." She said dismissively, not even looking to see which child had asked. Serina winced inwardly at the name. Noah was one of the oldest siblings and was going to move out soon. More than that though, is that he always disliked her un-hedgehog likeness. He always made it his job to try and correct her about everything!

She obediently asked Noah to come out with her and he followed her to a large domed area. This is where the subteranian children came to play. There was a little library, some hammocks, blocks, and even a little food court incase the kids got hungry but couldn't make it back home.

Serina knew from seeing the school's playground that parks on the surface were a lot different. They had slides and swings, and teeter totters and round-abouts! Children were _expected_ to run up there, she hoped one day to play up there.

"Why don't we go to the hammocks?" Noah asked without really asking in that obvious tone of his. The one he only used on her.

"Yessir." She mumbled quietly, keeping her head bent down and shuffling to the hammocks like a normal hedgehog. The only thing she liked about hammocks was that sometimes they swung a bit like a real swing.

Noah lifted her onto one without saying anything. He already knew that if she had her way she would make a big show about struggling to get on in order to purposely make it swing. He knew all her tricks. He sat behind her and she opened the book she had brought.

It was at least a favorite of her's, the only one she actually owned. It was Destiny Deer's Big Race. It was about a little fawn named Destiny and her being challenged to a race in order to save her family from the mean Borris Bear.

It wasn't a book normally seen with hedgehog children, Badger children were its more favorable fanbase. She had falllen in love with the book the moment she saw the word race on it. At least no one complained since she actually read it, like a normal kid would.

Noah eventually fell asleep and Serina took the oppurtunity to carefully climb out. The park was empty so she was able to run around until her legs and lungs ached or until Noah woke up. Whichever happened first, and if she was quiet, it would be the former.

It was only a short twenty minutes before her brother stirred though and she quickly strode to the blocks to make it look like she had gotten bored with reading. Blocks were pretty much the only toys they played with, since subteranian kids were normally very unenergetic.

Noah took her home and she managed to be fifth in line this time and got a cookie! Today was a pretty good day, even though she couldn't run for very long. She figured she had made some progress on her new goal though. She had found the distance, now she only had to make it!

Serina slept fitfully, waking often because Emily kept waking up from a nightmare. It was her first night without mama after all, so that was normal. Still though, Serina was so tired.

Days passed uneventfully. She found an excuse to stay after school on Mondays and Thursdays by joining a board game club. In a board game club they played with tons of games like chess, shougi, mahjong, snakes and ladders, candy land, and lots of others.

She always left halfway through the meetings though by telling the teacher that her parents didn't like her being away so long. A sibling would come and pick her up at the regular time of five at the parking lot though. This gave her time to run and play at the upper park. Now she could run for a longer time, though she wasn't sure about the distance yet. It didn't feel like twenty five miles.

It was just after her eight birthday that her world started to change faster than she could keep up with it. Her parents started looking more stressed and kept forgetting everyone's names. They didn't take as many visits anymore and never told her to be more hedgehog like anymore. At first Serina thought it was because they had given up on her but she soon learned it was the same for all of her siblings, even the youngest ones.

She knew it must have something to do with the surface, but she didn't know what or how it would affect her passive family.

Then the disappearings started. The first time she noticed it was when her teacher Mr. Bear was replaced with a Ms. Goat after three weeks of the new semester. The next was when her favorite uncle Charley stopped visiting every week and she didn't see him for a whole month. He was the only one who told her she didn't have to be more hedgehog like, only more Serina like.

Next to vanish was her biggest sister Angela. She asked her parents where Angela was at dinner and it led to a panicked, but still somehow lazy, head count. Angela wasn't there. Suddenly she wasn't allowed out alone anymore, nobody was! Even if they were almost an adult someone had to go with them! Serina got scared.

It was almost May when nobody came to pick her up from her club meeting. She waited a whole thirty minutes before starting the long trek home. She had bought a map and knew which way their community was in the village, so it shouldn't be too hard.

She made it home late that night. She had run a lot of the way but the mud weighed her down. The funny thing was she didn't think it had rained at all recently. The rains only came in winter but the ground was all muddy now! She hoped there wasn't any flooding from the river, her home was made of dirt after all!

It had flooded once and they had all been moved to the school, everyone from the subteranian community had to go until the ground was completely dry!

She entered the ground to find herself ankle deep in water. Her red and white shoes were all wet now but she didn't mind too much. It had flooded, which meant that her family and everyone else should be busy evacuating and saving valuables. She passed the Moles, but their hall was totally empty! She figured they were either already done and had left or that they were helping other people. The moles were a pretty small family so they often helped the large ones, despite their bad eyesight.

Not seeing the Meerkats worried her, especially as the water height had grown to her knees. The meerkats had a lot of little ones and would take even longer than her family to leave, but she hadn't seen anyone else yet. The door was closed, but it felt like water was coming from inside!

Hesitantly, because she knew it was rude to open the door unannounced, she opened it. Water came flooding out, knocking her down. She felt something hit her and when she managed to claw her way up to standing position again, she screamed.

The thing that hit her was a little meerkat. Now all of them were floating around in the hall, evem the adults! The water had risen to her waist. Serina was no longer scared, she was terrified.

She pushed and pulled and kicked her way to her hall but was absolutely horrified with the door closed and the water already up tp her chest. Nobody underground was a good swimmer, but hedgehogs didn't even float because of their spines!

"Plase! Please! Please! Please!" She panted, grabbing the doorknob. As soon as it was twisted she was pushed away as the hall was filled to the tippity top with water. Dear Ancients where was the air! She couldn't breathe! Couldn't swim! Couldn't see!

"Mama!" She cried helplessly before being pulled under. The water pressed in from all over and she felt like she was being squished. She couldn't tell which way was up and which down anymore, but she certainly felt it when their living room coffee table floated up next to her.

She grabbed to it as her only life line but it only took her so far. The water kept coming and there was no way out! She could see bodies floating around her all over! Dear Ancients that was Elizabeth and she wasn't moving!

It felt like hours but suddeny she felt the Earth above her and began to instinctively dig. The water followed her but she kept digging. She knew they weren't very far down from the surface, maybe she could make it!

It turned out she didn't have to, the water pressure did it for her. It sprayed upwards, tossing her into the air and bringing her back down again all to fast!

It felt like the water was trying to drag her down but she kicked and fought, thinking only one thing. She wanted to run again! She had to feel that feeling and keep moving forward! She wanted to keep running and never stop!

"I want...to LIVE!" She screamed finally, putting everything she felt into that last word.

Maybe the Ancients heard her, maybe they didn't, but she survived that flood. She survived, but not unmarked. After that day she never approached water without feeling afraid and seeing floating bodies, though their shapes changed all the time.

When she woke up, her first thought was that she was cold. Her second was she was wet. Her third was that she must've slept in because she felt the sun. Her fourth was that she _could_ feel the sun.

Serina's eyes sprang open and it was like a scene from the legendary Zone of Silence, or at least how she pictured it based on the discription. It was raining fire and brimstone and there was ash in the air. People screamed in every direction, and the sun's heat wasn't really the sun but the fires raging all around her.

She heard crying nearby and numbly stood to investigate. It was a little Fox boy, probably only three years old. Foxes and Hedgehogs normally didn't associate, despite both living underground, but she was never a normal hedgehog. She walked over to the little fox, who she realized was strange too. He had two tails.

She didn't know his name, and didn't know how to comfort a little fox, but admist all the death and fire she could not leave him. Not next to the red stained fox parents next to him.

"Hey Tails, don't cry okay?" She tried, making up a little name for the kit until she figured out his real one. She picked him up, he was heavy, and bounced him up and down. She didn't smile, she wasn't sure she could, but she talked with a happy tone to try and soothe his spirits.

"Hey look, there's a couple kids alive!" The voice was strange, it didn't sound natural somehow. Serina, to her credit, did not freeze. She slowly turned and saw a thing from a nightmare. It's silvery body reflected the flames and its big mouth glistened with fangs. It's claws were gruesome and covered in dripping blood.

She didn't fear for her life, in fact she had begun to doubt she was still alive, but she feared for Tails' life.

She turned and _ran._ She kept Tails as sheltered in her arms as she could as she heard the clunk of the robot following her. She didn't stop, only ran faster and faster until her heart was fit to burst. Her limbs began to shake with the effort of carrying both of them but instead of collapsing or dropping the fox, she _ran._

Her breathing grew raggered and her steps faltered more than once but she didn't slow down. She passed by burning buildings and saw others running for their lives. An older rabbit was zig zagging as another robot chased him and he was doing pretty good at avoiding injury.

She stopped thinking and just _ran_ when the robot began to swipe at her. She had slowed without thinking about it but now she pushed herself even harder. She felt something starting to circulate her body and she felt better than before, more energetic than ever and she sped up even more. She was neck and neck with a young cat woman carrying a kitten in its mouth and running on all fours.

Tails had stopped crying but kept making strange warning sounds, she guessed he wasn't sure about a lot of words but he seemed calmer than before and was at least helping. He would scream louder whenever the robot got too close she noticed.

Serina wasn't sure where she was running, only that it was _away. _She saw the cat woman stagger again and again but couldn't do anything to help, she already had too much of a load. The robot behind them swiped again and caught the cat on her back legs. The woman lurched forward painfully and tossed a look her way.

"Toss him to me!" She wasn't sure what she was thinking. She couldn't possibly carry the kitten and Tails! Still, she found one arm reaching out when the cat woman let go of her kitten.

"His name is Ashten!" The woman called to her. Serina hefted the kitten into her arms and made Tails hold him. Behind her, the cat turned around and charged the robot to buy time.

Serina knew that the cat woman died that day, but she couldn't do anything about it. All she could do was carry the infant kitten and the three year old Tails and pray she could keep running.

Serina found herself racing a train. She had seen it through the corner of her eye passed some buildings and she made a turn without thinking. The train was filled with people fleeing the massacre.

"Hurry child! You can make it!" An elderly owl woman urged her, reaching a wing out to try and grab her hand. Serina puton a burst of speed then tossed the kitten.

"His name is Ashten!" She found herself repeating. Why was a name so important anyway?

She felt Tails grip harder, he must've realized what she was trying to do. She didn't care and ripped him from her arms. She tossed him with all her strength to the owl woman. She caught him.

She tried to catch up, she really tried. Her legs couldn't keep up though and she began to fall behind. She heard the clunk of the robot behind her again. The cat woman had bought her son time to escape, but it looked like Serina wouldn't get away.

"Faster child! Just a little farther!" A man encouraged her. She recognized him as a gopher and found tears of relief pouring from her eyes.

"Come on!" "Hurry!" "Just reach out and take my hand!" She pumped her legs for all she was worth, and then she _jumped._

Her hand ghosted over the railing and she was certain she wouldn't have made it if the people hadn't grabbed her dress. She did make it though, and she let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding.

On the fast moving train she turned around and saw the robot. Oh _Ancients _the cat woman's paw was hanging out of its grizzly maw!

It was catching up to the train. Serina sobbed, wondering if they'd get away. She was almost ready to give up, she almost reached out to let the monster take her. Then she remembered.

Tails was on this train. The kitten Ashten was on this train. The elderly owl was on this train. So was the gopher, so were so many others too. They were on this train with her and if that robot caught up with the train, they would all die.

Something in Serina **snapped.**

"I'll gobble you all up!" The robot shouted.

"How about a knuckle sandwhich instead!" She shouted, louder than she ever had. She put a foot on the rail and shoved off. She landed her left foot right between it's ugly eyes and the momentum of her push knocked him down, hard.

She saw him crumple with the force and noted in a detached manner that she may have sprained her ankle. Slowly, she turned to the speeding train, where everyone was staring at her in shock.

She lifted a hand, and waved.

_**END OF THE CHAPTER AND I THINK IT WAS ABSOLUTELY AWESOME SO NNGH!**_

LC; Yeah, that was a good chapter.

Sonic; That's not what happened!

Tails; Yeah!

LC; It is in my dreams! And this is _fan_fiction, so I can write whatever I want!

Sonic; Why is Knuckles writing my story?

LC; I like Knuckles, he has potential to be badarse!


	2. Sonic

LC; We are back baby!

Sonic; So soon?

Tails; You just finished our chapter!

lC; I know but I am on a roll!

Sonic; Don't you have other stories to update?

LC; Yeah, but the juices are running dry for them. So I'm taking a break and working on something else!

Tails; Well, I saw your previous schedule and I guess its for the best.

Sonic; That was her schedule? I thought it was a torture list.

LC; Yeah, updating stories within thirty days was too much. So now I have a new schedule!

Tails; Now she's going by which one interests her most and/or is in more need of updating.

Sonic; So she's going to be stuck on us for a while?

Tails; *Nods*

Sonic; Dang.

LC; Time for my story now!

Disclaimer; Warning, people in screen do not own as much Sonic as it appears.

Chapter 2; Run to Be Free.

Serina Hedgehog slept peacefully in the ruins of somebody's home. All that was left were the walls, part of the roof, and a metal box partially melted. The fires had finally run out of things to burn and had more or less burned out. The screams had stopped and the robots could no longer be heard. Maybe they had moved on.

After somehow taking down that monster she had hobbled to this house and collapsed in the corner behind the metal box. She hadn't moved since.

Ash had settled on most everything and it was ash tickling her nose that finally roused her. She sneezed and froze at the noise. When she didn't hear murderous robots coming to kill her she relaxed a little and took her bearings.

She looked out the remains of the door to see the train tracks, and the robot remains. It hadn't moved, which meant she had either killed it or it was badly broken. Either one worked for her but she would prefer dead.

She looked down at herself and grimaced. Her clothes had been soaked, stained with mud, and covered in ash. Her quills felt strangely sticky and she could feel mud stuck between the spines. Her shoes were almost falling apart.

The realization that she was an orphan hadn't hit yet and she was still able to function almost normally. She was fine except for her clothes and quills and left foot from hitting the monster. It looked swollen and she vaguely knew that she should remove the shoe or it would hurt worse.

She shuffled around the house and found the kitchen. Most of the food had burned up, but she found some warm milk and a box of oreos that had survived the fire. She ate them and drowned them in milk and felt a little better. It had been a long time since she had eaten.

She found herself in the bedroom of a child, a boy from all the blue in the room. She found a pair of brown shorts, a pair of shoes two sizes too big, and an overly large, green T-shirt.

She wanted to put them on right away but was all to aware of the grime covering every inch of her. Her fur was matted and stiff, her spines were caked in mud and ash, and she needed to clean her ankle. That meant water.

The bathroom had been largely spared and when she twisted the knob water did come out. She started to shake when she saw the liquid and she felt cold. It was only then she realized fully what had happened.

She wailed and sobbed and screamed herself hoarse. Tears came and it seemed like they would never stop. She shouted out each sibling's name, not knowing which dead and if any survived and too afraid and shaken and hurt to check. She cried for her family, for all their quietness and dissappointment in her she cried.

It might've only been an hour, it might've been a day. Eventually she found that she had laid her head down on the side of the tub and the water had somehow switched to the overhead and was soaking her naked body. It was a good thing she had put her clothes on the sink, or her new clothes would get all wet too.

She felt better after crying, and she didn't shake so much as she washed herself in the shower. She once tried to take a bath but the water pooling around her clothes nearly made her faint. It seemed showers were fine, so long as the water didn't pool higher than her ankle.

Speaking of ankles, it looked like her's had stopped swelling and wasn't as bad as she thought it was. She had no idea if it was sprained, broken, or just really badly bruised. Only that she might not be running for a while.

She dressed in the clothes she had found and looked at her reflection in the broken mirror. She didn't look much different, though she bet if she cut her quills she'd pass for a boy. Serina's hands found a knife from the kitchen and she only realized what her body was doing when the quills littered the ground all around her. She had always liked her brown quills.

Serina sat in that house, looking out the door at the robot. She didn't know what to do. She was eight years old and the world had been turned topsy turvy and she was lonely and lost. She was afraid, she wanted her mama and daddy! She would even like Noah at this point!

She was starting to realize what had happened and it scared her. They had been invaded by robots! Her family, and a whole lot of others, had been killed. Somehow, she had survived and helped two other little'uns survive as well. She wondered how Tails and Ashten were doing.

Serina the Hedgehog wasn't scared anymore.

She got up and walked outside. The robot she had killed, she realized if it was just broken the other robots would've taken it with them, was still there. She walked over to it and briefly admired the dent she had put in it's forehead.

"I'm not Serina anymore, I'm Sonic." She walked through the village she used to live in and found some loose threads all over the place. She found a back pack near a broken down and empty bus. She emptied out the books and papers and started filling it with food and water and clothes instead.

If she found a body, she checked for signs of life, but was always let down. She found the rabbit boy from earlier, he had died quickly it looked like. She was stunned to find herself happy about that. Even if he hadn't suffered, he had still died!

But that was just Sonic for you. She didn't stay down for long. Even if she tried. She found a bright side in just about everything. Sonic the Hedgehog wasn't a downer.

Along the way she found an old man's cane, only slightly charred and used that to keep weight from her foot.

Eventually she remembered her map and pulled it from the pocket she had stuffed it into. It was still damp but the words hadn't run that much and she could still read it.

She did the math like her teacher had shown her and was stunned. The distance from her home to the school was twenty five miles. The distance from the place right above her home to that house by the train tracks was _thirty _miles.

Sonic the Hedgehog folded up the map carefully and continued her painfully slow walk in the direction the robots had come from. She wanted to find where they came from. She had to find out, if only to find out who made these robots. Who was responsible for the deaths of her family.

She travelled along the outskirts of the Great Forrest, a place she had never been to and was almost too afraid to approach.

Sonic skirted the edges of the forrest and kept a watchful ear out in case some robots saw her and decided to have a snack. Wait, could robots eat? She thought that they didn't need food, but that robot she had killed had eaten the cat woman. So did they eat?

The question kept herself busy but she eventually stopped trying to debate against herself since she had only ever seen one robot so far. She wasn't sure if she wanted to see others or not, but she kept walking.

According to her father the city Knothole was located somewhere in the winding trees. Hardly anyone ever made it there, and no one ever gave away its location to anyone else. Until now, she hadn't known why it had to be such a big secret. Now, she wondered if people were searching for that village to try and destroy it and the royal family. She prayed it stayed hidden.

On her third day of travelling she saw something that shocked her. It was a strange, moving, metal bug! Or at least, that's what it looked like! Only it moved on rubber wheels and a bad smell came from it!

The car pulled over, she assumed they had seen her, and out from the sides popped two robots!

"A mobian! Capture him!" Sonic found herself frozen this time as the first robot approached her.

"Come here little boy, we'll take you to our leader." The robot ordered her.

"Who's your leader?" She asked, deepening her voice a little so they would think she was a boy. She wasn't sure why she was pretending, but she felt a little safer if they didn't know a lot about her.

"Dr. Robotnik built all us robots and he's going to make all you mobians into robots as well." The robot said, only a few meters away from her now.

"How will he make me a robot?" She asked innocently, trying to distract the robot long enough for her to loosen the straps of her bag so she could run faster.

"Using roboticization, he will turn you into a robot and take from you all your free will." Sonic's heart began to pump that weird energy giving stuff like before.

"Well would you tell Dr. Robotnik something for me?" The robot didn't say anything but cocked its head to one side.

"Tell him this. Sonic the Hedgehog is too fast to catch." She didn't drop her bag like she had planned, but it didn't seem to matter. She bolted into the forest and belted through the trees, ducking and dodging the branches like they weren't even there.

The wind blew through her quills as she sped through the forest. She couldn't hear signs of persuit anymore and she slowed down a bit, only just now realizing that her ankle hurt. She collapsed in front of a lake but didn't even have time to shiver at the amount of water. She fell into blissful unconciousness.

Hours later the pain woke her again and she managed to blink away the tears and sit up. She had lost her cane somewhere during her retreat and now she wished she still had the hunk of wood. Her ankle had swollen up again and was very painful.

For a long time she left it alone after removing her shoes and socks, hoping the swelling would go down on its own. Eventually though she had to move to the water. Dragging herself over to the water's edge was painful and nearly turned her hair grey, but she managed to soak her foot.

It was while her foot was soaking and she was just feeling a little braver that she saw something sparkling in the water. It looked like a bracelet or something.

She was reluctant to move any closer than she absolutely had to but her curiosity got the better of her and she closed her eyes. Her hand groped in the mud for a bit until she found the ring with her fingers and pulled it out.

Sonic gasped as she was nearly blinded by its shine. It was twinkling like a star in the night sky. Holding it, she knew it had amazing power. Question was, what should she do with it?

Eventually she began pondering its usefulness in healing. It would be nice if her foot was healed so she could walk and run again.  
>Sonic looked closely at the ring and lifted her left foot. Carefully, she brought the ring to it and flinched at the bright light and foreign feeling. Her leg felt very warm for a second and then it was over.<p>

Sonic gasped when she saw her ankle completely healed, but the ring had vanished. After looking around and concluding that she had not dropped it, she was forced to admit the ring must've only been good for one go.

"Too bad, that ring could've been useful." She mumbled, standing again on her own two feet and feeling all the better for it. The lake didn't even bother her so much now that her foot was all better!

She knew a little more than she did before. She knew a man named Dr. Robotnik was leading the robots and turning people into mindless metal puppets! Sonic shivered as she remembered the disappearances. Were her uncle and sister robots now? The ones that went missing?

Sonic chose to stay at the lake clearing for a while, to try and figure out what she was going to do now. She wasn't very strong, but she was fast and could get faster. She felt full of energy, despite everything that had happened. Maybe she should go for a run?

Her original plan had been to leave her bag behind so she could move faster, but she couldn't bring herself to take off the comforting weight. So she took it with her on her run.

When she finally returned to the clearing, she had been running for what felt like hours and felt good. Running always lifted her spirits, even when she wasn't running anywhere!

The next day she awoke and went to the lake to drink some water. By now so long as she wasn't actually in the water she didn't mind being around it so much.

"Another ring?" Sure enough, in the crystal clear waters was another ring! She eagerly picked up the glowing circle and thought about what to do with it. On one hand, she wasn't hurt at all. On the other, who was to say the rings were only made for healing? Just holding it gave her an energy boost!

She started running without really thinking about it, leaving the clearing and heading to the road just beyond the winding trees. Instead of stopping, she kept running long after the ring's power had vanished. Now she kept running on her own power. It wasn't as fast as she could go with the ring, but it was faster than she could usually move.

When she stopped she was well and truly lost with no idea how far away the lake of rings was. In fact she couldn't even see the forest! It was flatland as far as the eye could see!

"I got lost." She sighed, disheartened by her prospects. Oh well, maybe she would find another village or something by following the road. She turned and started walking, not feeling up to running after that little jog she had just finished.

It was nearing twilight when she heard a familiar sound. It sounded like the metal bugs the robots had been riding inside! It sounded like it was coming from behind her.

Turning around, she saw a much larger metal bug than last time. There was a whole herd of metal bugs this time! Robots could be seen through the glass window things too! The bugs didn't slow down or stop like last time, but she didn't care. She had just seen something that brought up her nearly unexistent temper.

In the wagon part of the bugs were mobians in chains. She could see kids her age, old people, and those that looked sick or hurt. There was even a crying baby hedgehog.

Seeing the hedgehog was what finally drew her anger and she could feel her quills starting to bristle. She knew where the robots were taking those people, and she would not let that happen. She couldn't let them lose their freedom!

She tossed the bag to the side of the road and took a starting stance.

"Ready," The bugs were maybe fifty meters away and closing.

"Get set," Thirty meters, the baby was still crying.

"Go!" Ten meters, and she did some heavy damage. She burst forth at top speed and leapt before impact, putting her right leg almost a foot's length into the nose of the first bug. It skidded to a halt and a fire erupted from it, she didn't notice until later that her foot was singed but not broken.

Pulling out her leg she charged the robot that had climbed out of the side felt the heat of it exploding behind her as she continued running. The next bug crumpled in on itself at impact but didn't burst into flames like the last one. She kicked off the head of that robot.

All in all she probably brought down ten robots and six of the bugs. When she was done, her shins and feet ached but weren't broken, only bruised. Then she remembered the mobians.

"How did you do that?" Sonic gasped and turned around to see a hedgehog man! She had only noticed the baby!

"I'm fast." She muttered lamely, feeling the quiet passiveness of her kind over taking her. She purposefully shook her head to get rid of the impulse before turning to help the people get free from their chains.

"What's your name?" An elderly cat woman asked her.

"Call me Sonic." She smiled, the first time in what felt like forever. She promised to herself to smile more often, because smiling made things better!

"Archie, thank the girl." Archie was the cat woman's grandson, and just about her age she'd guess. The cat boy was a deep red, but not the same sheen as blood. She had seen enough of the liquid enough by now to know.

"That was so cool what you did! The robots didn't know what hit them!" The cat boy said excitedly, his eyes shining. She tensed a little at the unexpected praise but allowed the warm feeling of acceptance cover her like a blanket.

"Uh, thanks!" She said uncertainly.

Somehow she found herself travelling with them back the way they came. She must've run even farther than she thought because it took three days to reach the Great Forest again! When they did she was tempted to leave to go on to the lake of rings, but stayed. She would never forgive herself if these people were hurt by the robots because she wanted to run faster with those rings!

Sonic, although young enough that adults normally would help carry her, carried three babies on her back. They were a litter of hedgehogs, the male hedgehog's children. They were very small and should still be nursing, however the mate had been killed. She comforted them as best she could and made them drink the milk she had brought.

Even when she was exhausted, she found strength for another smile or to crack another joke to brighten the other children's lives. She encouraged them to keep moving forward and helped them to be happy again without their families.

The man hedgehog was now carrying Archie, who had nearly collapsed after trying to walk the entire way by himself. Sonic didn't know why he would do something like that, it was silly to make yourself tired like that for no reason!

"Sonic, your very different." The hedgehog man informed her.

"I know." She had kept to the new habbit of giving small, clipped answers whenever someone spoke to her unless it was a child. She needed all her energy to place one foot in front of the other.

"How'd you move so fast anyway? I've seen rabbits who look slow compared to you!" Was she really that fast? She didn't think so. Maybe the rest of the world was just slow!

"I like running." She shrugged, focusing for a moment to readjust one of the babies on her back.

Walking was hard on just about everybody. The paths they could find were narrow and the going slow. Sometimes it felt to Sonic that they weren't making any progress at all. She usually got up early to scout ahead, to see if they were close to the mysterious Knothole village.

Today she was carrying a five year old pup who had twisted his ankle on a root. She moved as fast as she dared but kept going between the group. She'd go ahead for a little while then fall behind to look at the back. It was an instinct she didn't fight, like so many other hedgehog like urges. She just did what felt natural.

Today she was moving ahead of the group and trying to see if there was anything they could eat. They had run out of food last night and now had to slow even more to pick edible plants and stuff. The water wouldn't last for much longer either, so finding a stream was a major concern amongst the adults.

"Maybe if I got higher I could see more." She finally sighed. Climbing didn't look like a very good prospect. She had never climbed anything before, except stairs. Heights and hedgehogs along about as well as Sonic and water.

She adjusted her grip on the puppy and took a running start at a tree. There was a lot of branches on it and they were low enough that getting a good momentum should propell her high enough to reach them.

"Hold on kid!" She ordered the puppy and felt the squeezing of his pudgy arms around her neck. She reached out on arm and leapt, grabbing a branch and pulling herself up. Carrying kids helped to build her upper body strength, so it was only a little struggle to pull them both up.

"Sonic get down! You'll hurt yourself!" Someone called up to her. She ignored whoever it was and jumped to a higher branch. She looked around but didn't see much other than trees and leaves. She couldn't hear anything but the local wildlife.

A laugh burst forward as she hopped from branch to branch over the group, ignoring the calls and shouts of the people below her. How could this be dangerous? She was happy now and moving faster than they could keep up. That feeling, that she had dubbed freedom, was back with a vengeance. The constant nagging worry of falling brought up that strange feeling of energy that her heart pumped through her body. She wondered why anyone would think this was bad.

Eventually the kid told her he had to pee so she had to jump down or smell like urine for the rest of the day. The adults told her not to do that anymore and gave her Archie to carry for a little while. They thought his heavier weight would drag her down. They were just providing her more training.

Archie though, didn't care to be carried. No sooner had she moved ahead, out of supervision radius, he jumped off her and started running around. Sonic shrugged and joined him, running around and soon laughing in child abandon.

Eventually they rejoined the adults and started a competition to see who could avoid running into someone the longest. Long after Archie got tired and was replaced onto her back again, Sonic _ran._

"Sonic, don't go too far!" It was a week into their forest trek and by now the adults had despaired of ever keeping the energetic young girl contained. It was like trying to hold back a flood, the pressure kept building until she broke through the barrier. Besides, her energy was refreshing.

Sonic gave a dismissive answer and took off, running at full speed up a tree and out of sight with Archie clinging to her back. They had developed a routine. She brought him up to the trees where the leaves blocked the adults' eyes, and he helped her do whatever she felt like doing.

Sometimes they ran ahead and took a nice long nap. Others they searched until they found food or water for everyone. On days like today though, when food and water supplies were high, they searched for Knothole.

"Hey Sonic, what's your real name?" Archie asked after ten minutes of tree jumping.

"What do you mean?" She asked, honestly confused.

"I heard uncle Bradley say that Sonic isn't a hedgehog name and your a hedgehog. So what's your real name?" He explained. Sonic frowned at the name Bradley. Was that the name of the male hedgehog? She hadn't bothered learning it.

"Sonic's who I am." She liked the name Sonic, it was fast! She enjoyed being fast! One day she'd live up to her name and travel at the speed of sound! Then nobody could make her stop running!

Sonic looked down between the branches and screeched to a halt. Ignoring Archie's complaints, she doubled back to what she had just seen. She dropped to the forest floor to get a closer look.

Sonic the Hedgehog had found footprints.

"Those aren't ours, there aren't enough." Archie supplied helpfully. Sonic set him down and went to get a closer look. The prints were heavy set, an adult's print. They were wearing boots too, all of them! There looked like there was a whole bunch of guys.

"Wanna follow'em?" Sonic asked the cat boy. He nodded happily. He wouldn't tell her but he had a crush on her for saving everyone from the robots.

Sonic didn't take to the trees this time, she just followed the trail along the ground. She moved at speeds that blurred her surroundings, making everything a bright, vibrant green color until she came to a halt.

The reason for her rather sudden stop? She stepped into a trap.

Sonic cried out in pain and shock and fell, inadvertently tossing Archie ahead of her when she hit the ground. Archie leapt up and backed away in surprise when he saw the scouts who's camp they had stumbled on.

"Leave him alone!" Sonic cried out when the men lifted spears to the intruders. Her leg was bloody but that energy stuff was flowing with her and she instinctively knew it was numbing the pain.

"Their just kids." One of the guards said uncomfortably. He himself had set the trap earlier to try and catch some dinner for him and his peers.

"Sonic! Are you okay?" Archie asked desperatly, trying to use his little hands to pry open the steel trap. Sonic figured she was lucky her leg hadn't been snapped off!

After the guards removed the trap and treated her leg, they interrogated them. Or at least, they tried to. Sonic was grumpy because of the pain in her leg and Archie was po'ed because Sonic had been hurt.

"Listen kids, we're royal guards from Knothole village! Now tell us why you are in the forest and where your families are!" The head guard finally yelled. Sonic and Archie exchanged looks.

"We'll tell you everything you want to know if you agree to let us and our "families" come into Knothole and you escort us there personally!" Sonic suggested shrewdly. Of course, the guards figured that since the kids had been on their own that it was probably just a few adults and a couple kids. When Sonic led them (Very slowly and painfully might I add) to where the group had taken a break, she laughed at the faces of the guards upon seeing their disbelieving faces.

Sonic the Hedgehog decided she hated to wait.

First the guards made her wait by saying they had to count everyone and make a list of who they were, where they came from, and names! Then she had to wait as the little kids were distributed for carrying! Then she had to wait for them to finish eating! Then she had to argue for twenty minutes on why her hurt leg wasn't so bad that she couldn't walk!

"I don't like being carried." Sonic grumbled from her forced seat on the head guard's back. He had apparently gotten tired of her argument and plucked her up before she could do anything to stop him. Not that she could run anymore, because of his stupid trap! Who put traps where little girls might run into them anyway?

"Your a kid, kids get carried." The guard retorted.

"I can run faster than anybody else and take down evil robots, but until I turn ten I have to be carried?" He nodded in answer. He didn't like this anymore than she did, she was small for her age but heavy!

**DNE FO SIHT RETPAHC OS OUY DLOUHS EVEAL EM ENOLA WON!**

LC; Tell me if you can read that!

Sonic; What is that? French?

LC; Nah, its just mirror writing. I read somewhere that Einstein wrote in his journals in mirror writing so nobody could steal his ideas!

Tails; Wow, that's pretty clever!

LC; Yeah, I'm thinking about writing a report for school in mirror writing. Just to annoy my teachers!

Sonic; Won't they give you a bad grade?

LC; Nah, if the writing's neat and in english then according to the rule book they must accept and accurately grade all work!

Sonic; You don't like school do you?

Tails; You seem way to happy about annoying teachers.

LC; School is just seven crappy hours of our lives!


	3. I'm Blue

LC; I'm on a real roll here!

Sonic; Your on a Sonic roller-coaster!

Tails; Ugh, stop the ride I want to get off!

LC; Why? You haven't made more than a cameo appearance in the story so far.

Tails; True, but that will only last for so long.

Sonic; Yeah, when do I get my buddy back anyway?

LC; I don't know. I was thinking in about five years, give or take.

Sonic; Why that long?

LC; Mostly because I want a chance to "reinvent" Sonic so to speak.

Tails; What do you mean reinvent? You already gender bended him!

LC; I mean showing more of her/his personality and how it got there.

Sonic; How do you know so much stuff about personalities?

LC; I enjoy physcology! Its my one and only fav subject!

Tails; That doesn't make me feel better.

Sonic; Subject change! Is Archie a gender bended Amy?

LC; Yup!

Sonic; So since he was gender bended that means your pairing us?

LC; Maybe. I'm not sure. I just like his/her crush on you and thought it was funny.

Disclaimer; Nothing is wrong with your computer screen, I really do not own Sonic and no amount of fiddling with the wires is going to change that.

Chapter 3: Too Fast to Catch

Sonic and the group reached Knothole with a lot of relief and excitement. It had taken four days after meeting with the guards and her leg was mending faster than it was meant to, at least according to the guard. She wondered if it had something to do with her using the ring to heal herself.

They were led to the castle where King Max himself would welcome them to Knothole. Apparently refugees from all around were arriving in the village to flee from Dr. Robotnik. Sonic swore to herself that she would not stay long. She wanted to get out there and fight too!

The king had a daughter her age named Sally, Sonic thought she was up tight because the girl didn't even bother saying hi during the entire ceremony. Sonic decided that she didn't care even if she _was_ a princess!

"Welcome to Knothole." The king addressed her kindly. Sonic blinked owlishly before recovering her manners.

"Thank you sir." She said quietly, as befitting a hedgehog. She also decided she needed to work on being more out going around adults. Being hedgehog like wasn't important anymore!

"Sonic my child, your companions have told me all about your prowess in battle against the robots that had captured them." The king continued. He had led them to a large dinner room and they were having a huge feast! She had been seated at his left side, across from Sally, a place of honor since she had saved everyone.

"How did one as young as you do it?" He asked her curiously.

"I'm fast." She shrugged. She didn't really understand why that kept coming as such a shock. If other people started running they could probably run even faster than her since she was just a hedgehog.

"Would you show me how fast you are in a friendly race?" She didn't even think about it before smiling and nodding excitedly. A race, a fast paced competition! She'd never really competed in anything before because that was unhedgehog like behavior! But now she didn't have to get permission from her parents to participate! It was like a dream come true!

"Well as soon as your leg is healed completely I'll have everything set up for you." He laughed with abandon. He did not chuckle, he tossed his head back and positively _roared_ with laughter. This was the kind of man her family would have been up in arms about her being around.

Sonic the Hedgehog decided she wanted to be just like him when she grew up.

Sonic and Archie were shown to the royal play room where they would spend their days. Well, thats what the guards told them, Sonic had no intentions of staying there any longer than she had to. The moment she could run without almost blacking out she would be long gone!

Sally stayed in the room with them most of the time, but she still didn't interact with them unless necessary. It got to the point where Sonic decided that she'd do something to make sure Sally paid them a little attention.

"I've decided, I'm never going to stay in this tiny room! The minute I can walk I am out of here!" Sonic finally grumbled. She had been playing with a toy rocking horse but had bumped her leg against it and had to spend ten minutes rocking back and forth before the pain diminished.

"So its not good enough for the fast little hero?" Sally growled, loud enough for Sonic to hear but Archie, who was on the other side of the room, missed it.

"Hero? I just helped some people blow up a couple of stupid robots. That's not hero stuff." Sonic countered boldly.

"Obviously my father thinks so because he's planning on using you for a special mission! He says if you are as fast as those people say then you will be a good spy!" Sonic was shocked when she heard that.

"He would never consider something like that for me! He claims I am a child but your no older than I am!" She shouted, her cute pig tails flying all over as she excitedly shook her head in disbelief. Sonic took the time to think that she looked kind of funny with her pig tails flying around like that.

"Then show him that you can do something to help." She pointed out. It seemed obvious to her. That was when she was struck by an idea. She knew Sally was really smart and knew lots of things that went on in the castle, despite apparently being looked down upon for her age.

"Hey Sally, I got a great idea!" Sonic said suddenly, motioning for Archie to join them.

"Fighting Robot-butt head on isn't working right?" There were some giggles at her nick name for the monster but nods as well.

"Then what if a smaller, faster group of fighters popped up and started making it hard for him to do all his evil deeds?" She could see the idea was starting to generate interest.

"We need a name." Archie said suddenly.

Sally and Sonic exchanged looks before they each began listing cool names. It was slow going though, as they couldn't quite agree on any of them. It was Sally who eventually gave an acceptable name.

"What about, the Freedom Fighters?" The other two children eagerly nodded and shook hands, the group forged.

"Sounds cool." After the name was decided the talk turned to less and less likely scenarios, transforming into a child's fantasy. Sonic figured if they could find a way to actually do damage though, that they would pull together quite well.

Three days after that, Sonic's leg was completely healed. Amazingly, and to many of their finest doctors' disbelief, there was no scar. Sonic figured it was just a lucky break. She wasn't sure how she would have felt if her leg had looked all disfigured with tons of scars.

"Well then Sonic, are you ready for that race?" King Max asked her that night at dinner, after being reassured that she was a hundred percent healed.

The next morning they met at a race track. The king had his fastest scouts ready and waiting. Of course, the scouts had been instructed to move at full speed, but they still underestimated their opponent. Especially upon learning she was an eight year old _hedgehog._

Your majesty, I mean no disrespect, but hedgehogs aren't known for their speed." One of the scouts stated boldly. King Max only smiled kindly and told him to take her seriously.

Sonic the Hedgehog promised she would not lose.

They all took a running stance. King Max raised one arm and watched as each runner tensed.

"On your mark." Sonic shifted her feet in the gravel, getting a good grip on the turf.

"Get set." She took a deep breath.

"Go!" She left them in her dust. She didn't notice though, because she was once again enthralled by the freedom of _running._ Sonic's feet barely touched the ground and her surroundings blurred. The tunnel vision might've been a problem, but her eyes seemed to adjust so easily! She saw that she had already crossed the finish line but she didn't want to stop. Why stop now, when she felt she was so close to breaking that barrier!

Max blinked and missed when Sonic took off. He had heard she was fast enough to use her momentum to destroy the Swatbots that had been guarding the prisoners, but he hadn't known she was _this_ fast!

He watched as she rounded the track over and over again, not stopping or slowing at all. He frowned and watched the brown-green blur she had become. Something was happening and he wasn't sure what it was.

A light was blooming around Sonic as she dashed around and around, dodging the other runners, who stood in the track, shell shocked. The light was a deep blue and it was changing her!

With almighty boom something in Sonic **changed.**

When Sonic came to a halt, she had been transformed. Her once brown quills had changed into a deep azure color. Her shoes looked worn, though she was sure they hadn't looked like that before.

She didn't have time to ponder what this change meant for her. The shock of what she had just done and changed into compacted into too much for her eight year old self to cope with.

"I win." She said shakily before falling back in a dead faint.

"What's happened to her?" King Max was speaking to his finest doctor and scientist. Her name was Korin-ka the Echidna and she was very familiar with the mysterious abilities of the rings and chaos control.

"It appears she was born with an extordinary power over Chaos control. This power might have manifested into anything, but it seems to have mostly focused into her legs and eyes." The echidna saw she would have to do some explaining to the king and the little girl sitting on the bed in front of her.

"Its not that unheard of though usually it only happens when the mother is exposed to an emerald before birth. The emerald's power changed her DNA and the power lay dormant until a time that she needed it." Sonic tilted her head to the right and wondered what jewels had to do with her new dye job.

Korin-ka explained the concept of the chaos emeralds to the eight year old. She then explained how she had always had the power but only her wish to be fast unlocked it. She was then introduced to power rings, which could greatly augment her new abilities.

"This must be a lot to take in." King Max said kindly, looking at the stunned hedgehog girl.

"I got a question." He nodded for her to continue.

"Why am I blue now?" His mouth opened and closed a few times before he turned helplessly to Korin-ka. The echidna shrugged.

"More importantly Sonic, this ability you have could be very useful. You can run at the speed of sound!" Max said, effectively turning the subject away from her new do.

They talked late into the evening as the king went on to explain that he wanted Sonic's help to fight Robotnik and his mechanical forces. She learned that the robots she had destroyed were called Swatbots and that the 'metal bugs' were called cars and trucks. Trucks being the ones with the wagon parts at the end.

Then they talked about the mission he had in mind for her. It was a mission to try and save mobians from being roboticized in a prisoner labor camp near the badlands. She was showed a map and she recognized that she would have to follow the train tracks near her village for a while to get there.

Sonic was given a week before she was expected to depart on her solo mission. On her fourth day of freedom before leaving, Sonic and Sally wandered the shops to find Sonic a new outfit. She figured she needed a new look to compliment her new color.

Eventually she settled on a one-piece suit, which was bright blue, a dark blue tummy sweater, and a tie on bolt of cloth to act as a skirt. The outfit was light, and gave her lots of room to move. She finished them off with new, high friction shoes that would last her a long time and a pair of white gloves.

"Anyways Sonic, I found the perfect place for our HQ!" Sally was saying excitedly. They had been looking for somewhere it would be hard to find them.

"A friend of mine, a real genius named Rotor Walrus, says we can use the caves under the village! He's already down there working on everything!" Sonic grinned when she thought of how cool their base would look. They were going to be real official freedom fighters!

"Also I found us another member! He's really a good fighter and his name's Antoine! We're meeting up with him at the entrance to the caves!" Sonic briefly wondered what this Antoine fellow was like. She figured he should be okay since Sally obviously likd him.

"What about Archie?" The cat boy was a good friend, even if he acted kind of weird around her. He was always doing everything for her when she was still hurt. He had even offered to carry her around to repay the favor.

"Antoine is going to bring him! I asked him to and he said he would!" If that was good enough for Sally Sonic figured it was good enough for her.

"Let's get moving then!" Sonic cried excitedly, dashing back and forth to relieve some energy. Now that this new super speed was so easy to call on she found a new dislike for going slow. Walking now annoyed her, especially when she had the option of running.

In fact, she would probably run off right now if she knew where the cave entrance was. Sally was purposely not telling her so she couldn't run off. Not that she'd leave Sally behind, she'd pick her up bridal style and carry her!

"Come on!" She whined, trying to push Sally into at least a light jog. Sally was staying in first gear with a smile though.

"You need to learn being patient!" Sally reminded her childishly. Sonic pouted cutely, making a few passer bys pause and coo at her. She stopped pouting when she realized the reactions around her. If she wanted to be treated seriously she had to act like a grown up.

Sonic groaned and followed sulkily behind the squirrel. As soon as she knew where the entrance was she was going to run everyday!

It took a long time to walk all the way to the outskirts of the village. They were practically in the forest itself when Sally led her over to a formation of rocks. These boulders looked normal enough, but Sally pushed one aside and revealed a door!

The door needed someone who was apparently already accepted to place their palm on a little screen. A light would flash and the door would open if you were accepted! Sonic hadn't been keyed in yet though, so Sally had to open the door for them, going about purposely slowly in her quest to make Sonic more patient.

Something her family had worked on for seven years and failed at, just for the record.

"How long has he been working on this?" She asked, seeing the electrical lights and the air vents.

"I don't really know, but he's always known about this place. He knows all sorts of stuff." Sally said dismissively. Sonic shrugged inwardly and followed the squirrel princess down the hall and past several rooms. She nearly turned white as a ghost when a little flying video camera/bird thing appeared and showed them a screen.

"Hey guys, I saw you come in through the new security cameras! I'm in the lower chambers!" Sonic guessed that the boy in the screen was Rotor Walrus.

Sally led her to an elevator, which Sonic had never seen before. Apparently there were three levels of the freedom fighter's HQ. The entrance level which had the rooms to be used by members, kitchen, and medical area. The Middle Chamber was really one really big gym for training. The Lower chambers had all sorts of multi-purpose rooms, one of which was the security and info feed room.

"Hey Rotor, we beat Antoine and Archie here?" Rotor nodded and went back to whatever it was he had been doing. He was connecting and cutting a whole bunch of colorful wires. Each one was a different color and shade of color. She guessed that's what helped him remember which ones to cut and which to connect.

Although all the wires and screens and tools had no meaning at all to the now blue hedgehog girl.

"Yeah you beat them. I think they'll be here soon though." Sonic continued looking around and saw that the walrus had apparently been down there for some time. There were plates of old and moldy food sitting on some consoles. Sonic discreetly backed away from the leftovers when she thought she saw something move.

"I'm still working on indoor plumbing but I've got air conditioning, electricity, and a whole bunch of scavenged furniture already and waiting." The walrus boy said.

"Um, Rotor I think your sandwhich is alive." Sally said nervously, using a conveniently placed stick to poke the food item. Rotor looked over to the sandwhich and picked it up. He shrugged before plopping the rest of it into his mouth.

Sally and Sonic exchanged a look before both shuddered. Boys would never make sense, no matter how long they were around the opposite gender.

A monitor started beeping and turned on, revealing an image of Archie and some other boy entering the HQ. Sonic assumed the other boy was Antoine since he was already keyed into the special door.

They came straight down to the lower chamber. Sonic nodded to Archie in greeting before turning to the other boy.

"Yo, you must be Antoine. Sally told me about you!" She said politely, reaching out to shake the boy's hand. She was slightly hurt and annoyed when the boy ignored her gesture.

"You must be Sonic. That is not a hedgehog name but from what I've heard you don't act like a hedgehog." Sonic dropped her arm and raised an eyebrow. She didn't like his uptight manner. Sally had been uptight at first too though, she reminded herself. Maybe she just had to get the older boy to loosen up a little.

Archie inwardly growled at how his crush was being treated by the Antoine boy. He had seemed nice enough when they had met but the boy was acting downright cold now! What gives?

"Well freedom fighters, we have work to do!" Sally said, dispelling the somber mood and brightening their outlook on the arrangements.

"Okay, what we need to do first is give everyone a job and we'll do that by voting!" Sonic took a seat ontop of the computer table. She knew that when Sally was excited she tended to talk a whole lot more, like earlier when they were shopping.

"First jobs are frontline fighters! I think we should all have fighting potential, in case of emergencies!" She explained. That was voted for unanimously, the idea of not being able to fight back couldn't even be entertained.

"Alright, so we'll all be strong fighters! Next is...!" They had a good time all in all, deciding who would do what. Archie ended up as a kind of spy/scout who would get info on the enemy and be ready to always sabotauge him. Antoine would be a guard, for either prisoners or princess Sally, as it was the job he'd been training for all his life.

Rotor was the genius creator who would make their life easier by inventing new stuff! Sonic, she was given the job of taking down as much of the enemy's numbers as possible. It was always implied that Sally would be the leader, as she was not only a princess but had taken charge from the very start of this idea. She got things done.

Rotor was apparently ten, a whole two years older and really smart. His dad had died in the Great War and his other family had been roboticized. Antoine was nine and his mother was dead and his father's body was never recovered. Sally's mother and brother had been missing for a year, and no one was sure where they were.

Archie's parents were both dead, killed by the robots during a massacre in his village. He lived in a village just north of Sonic's own home. His grandmother was with him but she was old and being taken care of in the hospital, as she was very sick. He and Antoine were being cared for by two women named Rosie and Julayla.

Sonic was officially under their care as well, but had avoided meeting them so far. She wasn't sure how she felt about being taken care of anymore, even though Sally assured her that they were really nice and took care of lots of kids!

When they left the new HQ, Sonic left the others saying she wanted to explore some more. She ran off before anyone could speak up. She had some thinking to do to prepare herself for her mission in three days.

Antoine visibly relaxed when Sonic vanished from his sights. He didn't fully trust her and found her laid back manner rather childish. He conveniently forgot that they were both just children, thrust into a time of tumult and forced to grow up before their years. Another reason he treated her so stiffly was because of her strangeness.

He had met and spoken with hedgehogs before. They were not loud or brazen, and were always polite and agreeable. They were usually stiff around people outside their species, which made their quills harden. This he discounted due to Sonic's age, her quills wouldn't be able to harden in response to her will until she was ten. However they were quiet, did not like competition and moving faster than a walk was taboo!

They were also not blue. Sally had given him the rundown of Sonic apparently having a special power from the chaos emeralds and she had used to be brown, but she was blue now. Her new outfit was also slightly provacative.

Over all, he thought she was a bad influence on princess Sally. Already he had seen how at ease she was around the strange hedgehog girl. He refused to call her Sonic as it wasn't her real name. Hedgehogs always named their children something formal! She must've been so arrogant and disrespectful to change her name like that!

Sonic meanwhile was hopping along rooftops too fast for the naked eye to see. She was looking around and subconciously memorizing everything her eyes laid on. She didn't know that the energy that had settled into her eyes was storing away everything she saw, ultimately judging things like distance and time to help her get where she needed to go. It was the reason she never misjudged a jump and fell between branches on the way to Knothole.

Eventually she came to a stop near a park, where she caught sight of Archie and Sally playing with lots of other children. Sonic watched from where she was standing on top of a nearby roof, just above where they were playing. Then she saw Antoine walk up to Archie and Sally.

"Sonic is weird." She paused when she heard that but shook it off easily. She'd been called worse by her own family, as far as she was concerned weird was okay.

"Lots of people are." Archie defended her. Sonic smiled when she heard him and promised she'd be extra nice to him.

"She doesn't act like a normal hedgehog and she's blue!" The coyote boy continued, apparently not hearing Archie.

"She's blue cause of her powers! Besides I think Sonic's fine the way she is!" Archie argued fiercly, finally drawing Antoine's attention. Sonic's ears tilted back a little and her quills stiffened as she wondered if Archie would like her if she was normal.

"I would not expect better taste among a commoner, you were not raised with standards." Her quills stiffened for a different reason this time. She decided Antoine was an arrogant jerk who should man up a little and tell this stuff to her face!

Sonic jumped down, right in between Archie and Antoine, which stopped Archie from leaping to try and claw out his eyes.

"Sonic!" Archie cried happily. He was even angrier knowing his crush probably heard all those mean things that Antoine said, but he was happy to see her.

"If you have something against me please send all complaints directly to me." She said, glaring at the coyote boy.

"First off, I know I'm not like other hedgehogs, but I don't care. I'm not trying to be like a hedgehog, I'm trying to be me, my thoughts and feelings! Secondly, just because we were born somewhere different doesn't give you a right to make fun of who we are!" She said, pouring out all her emotions to the stunned boy. Antoine was looking very much like a rat caught in a trap.

"I don't think any differently of Sally from Archie even though she's a princess!" Archie wasn't sure if he should be elated for Sonic thinking of him or despair, knowing she thought of him the same way she thought of Sally.

"Finally, I know you don't think Sonic is my name and its not, but I'm not going to tell you what it is unless you change my impression of you!" She finished, with a more upbeat manner and a forced smile. She did want friends, she just wanted them to not put her and her other friends down. Besides, baiting Antoine was fun!

"Ooohhh Sonic~!" Sonic froze when she heard that tone from Sally. That was Sally's I-Managed-To-Do-Something-You-Won't-Like-But-I-Think-Is-Good-For-You tone.

"I want you to meet Rosie and Julayla!" Sonic barely registered the sentence before trying to bolt. Unfortunatly, Julayla was pretty fast herself and caught the back of her sweater before she could get away.

"Now why would you run from little old me?" The full grown chipmunk woman asked kindly, her steely grip on Sonic's sweater not loosening.

**I AM DONE WITH THIS CHAPTER AND AM STILL ON A ROLL FOR THIS STORY! AWESOME!**

LC; Well, now I believe its time to move on to the next chapter!

Sonic; There was more dialogue in this chapter than both 1 and 2 combined!

Tails; And you finally made Sonic blue again!

Sonic; Why do I have to tell Antoine my name?

LC; I figured it was a good plot twist for the ending.

Sonic; The ending? Of the chapter?

LC; No, but this foreshadows later events!

Tails; Quick question, do you have any idea which sonic series your basing this from?

LC; Not really know. I'm using the archie comics as a guide line but am taking poetic license with some of the more minor details.


	4. Fiona, Mighty, and Ray

LC; I'm majorly annoyed now.

Sonic; She had finished this chapter already but forgot to save it.

Tails; Her little brother came in and x-ed it out.

LC; Now I have to rewrite all of it! Do you know how annoying that is?

Sonic; It takes a long time to write it up the first time.

Tails; So I guess she's right to be pissed about that.

LC; Damn right!

Sonic; Ahem, let's juice it already and get to the story.

LC; I guess, but I am still pissed.

Disclaimer; If it looks to you like I might own Sonic, then please answer the following. What color is the sky in your world?

Chapter 4; Catching Up Fast

She felt like a mouse trapped in a corner and the cat's hungry eyes were staring her down. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place and she couldn't outrun the threat. Mostly because Julayla was still holding onto the back of her sweater.

"Um, nice to meet you?" She greeted them politely, pretending she hadn't just tried to run away like the devil was at her heels.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you as well, Sonic." The chipmunk returned. Before Sonic could even mouth the words 'help me' she was dragged to a bench and sat between Julayla and her cousin Rosie.

"Sonic, why don't you tell us why you've been avoiding us?" This was the other chipmunk, Rosie.

"Avoiding you?" Sonic didn't like the sound of that. It sounded like she had run away! Sure, she liked running, but not away!

"Don't think we haven't noticed little lady." Julayla took the oppurtunity to look over the young hedgehog she was holding captive. Blue fur, short spines, which were stiff, and a wary look that shouldn't be present in a child's eye.

Sonic didn't say anything, choosing instead to look over the playground at all the running children. She knew these women were considered the 'parents' of all the refugee orphans because they took care of everyone. She didn't want that though.

What if they were like her parents? She had escaped their expectations, admittedely in a way she wished had never happened, but escape them she had. She didn't want to be thrust into a new and unfamiliar routine. What if they tried to make her more hedgehog like?

"We're not trying to replace your parents." The chipmunk cousins had wrongly assumed that Sonic was reluctant to have more parent figures in her life. It wasn't the parent figures she feared, as much as what she would have to do to be accepted by them.

"No matter what you or the king thinks, you are a child who needs a home to come back to everyday. We provide all the orphans with that home. But even after you move in, we won't try to be your parents." Rosie put an arm around the girl's shoulders and noted the action caused the quills to quiver for a moment before they softened slightly.

"There will be rules, like keeping your part of the room clean, but over all nothing will have changed." Sonic used all her hedgehog likeness to keep her face neutral. She didn't want to live with so many kids after losing her entire family.

Besides, they hadn't said about how they expected her to act like yet.

"You can stay out as long as you want, so long as your back before it gets too dark." Julayla noticed how the hedgehog's quills softened even more and some of the stress eased from her body.

"Meals are pretty versatile, you can come in to the kitchen and make yourself something to eat whenever so long as you clean up after yourself." The list of rules went on. Like how she had to help make sure the little ones didn't hurt themselves. How she shouldn't talk to strangers. How they would want to be informed if she wanted to stay at a friend's overnight.

"Alright, I think that's it!" Sonic struggled not to let a sigh of relief escape her lips. She had forced her quills to soften when Rosie laid her hand on her shoulder because she was afraid of hurting the woman. They had softened even more when she heard she could stay outside all day, so they wouldn't know if she was being hedgehog like or not all the time!

She took her cue to run off, just short of popping through the barrier because she didn't want to break their ear drums on accident. They were nice enough, but she would still try not to be around them too much.

"What do you think of her?" Julayla asked her cousin.

"Oh she's a sweetie! I think that she'll get along just fine!" Ever the optimist, her cousin. Julayla hadn't diapered Sally's bum for nothing though. She knew when a kid was hiding something and everything about Sonic was a mystery. Her speed, her coloring, her name, no one even knew what village she was from!

"She's interesting at least." Julayla finally sighed. She just hoped Sonic would learn to trust them as time wore on.

Sonic sighed when she was out of sight of the chipmunks. She looked around a bit and noticed a lot of little kids nearby. They seemed to be avoiding one in particular though. She recognized this toddler too.

"Tails!" The two tailed fox gasped and turned around to see a blue hedgehog smiling down at him.

There had only been one person to call him Tails, the nice hedgehog girl who saved him! He could scarcely believe it was really her!

"Your the girl that saved me from the scary robot!" He spoke in complete sentences and enunciated properly, something three year olds were not suppossed to be able to do. He inwardly winced and wondered if she would run screaming from him like the other kids.

"I'm glad you remember me! My name is Sonic, and I guess I never got your real name!" He introduced himself as Miles Prower but told her it was okay to call him Tails. He rather liked it, especially since his hero was the one who started the nick name.

Sonic played with Tails for a long time, eventually introducing the kit to Sally and Archie. Antoine must've gone home and Rotor liked the caves too much to leave. So now she had to go home with the other orphan kids with Rosie and Julayla.

The next day, she was dragged from her new bed and all the way to the community pool. Sally had put a bathing suit into her arms and gone off already but Sonic could only stand and stare. She thought she was okay with water after finding the Lake of Rings, she thought being near water wasn't a big deal anymore.

Now she realized that the calm waters of a lake didn't compare to a pool of thrashing water with tons of kids screaming and laughing as they jumped in. Unbidden the images of her dead family appeared and a chill went through her. There was no way Sonic the Hedgehog was getting into that pool! No way!

With a purposeful stride she walked to the chairs set out for sunbathing and settled down to take a nap. The chair she'd chosen was in the shade and it was a perfect day for relaxing. If she focused only on the cool breeze she could ignore the sound of splashing.

"Come on Sonic, if you can't swim your taking lessons! Let's get up and get moving!" Sonic opened one eye and looked at the imposing figure of Julayla. She had a smirk on her face that would've made Robotnik think twice and at the moment it was aimed directly at Sonic.

"I don't swim." She said simply, unconciously sinking into the chair in an effort to appear even smaller.

"Which is why your taking lessons." Julayla said. She had suggested this pool trip to get the hedgehog girl to loosen up a little and that wouldn't work unless she had a little fun!

"No thanks." She really didn't like the glint in Julayla's eye but she thought she would be okay. It wasn't like the older woman was planning on throwing her in, right? Right?

Julayla snapped forward and caught the retreating hedgehog before flipping the small girl over her shoulder and through the air. Sonic didn't have the right peace of mind to take a breath before she fell through the surface of the water.

Immediatly Sonic's legs were pumping but it did no good as she was moving down rather than up. She instinctively closed her eyes and began thrashing around, trying to find air! She was being crushed from ever side! She could barely move! She couldn't breathe!

In a panic, Sonic lost track of which way was up and which down. All she knew was that she wasn't getting anywhere and her lungs were aching. She opened her eyes and opened her mouth in a silent scream, torrents of bubbles floating to the surface.

There they were, her entire family. There was little Elizabeth! Oh god Emily was floating right at her! Mom and Dad were staring at her, their eyes boring into her, accusing her! It was all her fault! She should've come home sooner!

Sonic fought against the apparitions but they were never really there. She only lost more and more air and replaced it in her lungs with liquid.

She didn't fight it when she felt arms wrapping around her waist and pulling her. Her family was probably taking her to join them in the after life. She wondered if they were in heaven or hell.

When Sonic became aware that she was laying on a hard surface and she could _breathe, oh merciful God air!_ She gasped in as much air as possible and felt something coming upstream. She turned to her side and emptied herself of all the water she had unwittingly taken in. Now she heard voices.

"You already knew she couldn't swim and you tossed her into the deep end!" That sounded like Sonic's idea of a wicked witch would sound like. A demon woman with a grudge the size of the mountains to hold. In reality though, it wasn't a witch, but Rosie scolding her cousin.

Sonic forced herself to stop being sick and _breathe _before she opened her eyes. All the children were being quiet, and she could see Sally trying to get Tails to stop crying. Sonic focused on Rosie who was chewing out Julayla, still. That chipmunk had a good set of lungs.

Sonic gave a weak cough and took stock of what happened. She had been thrown into the pool and started to panic, she remembered swallowing lots of water, then arms around her and pulling. She must've been pulled out by the dripping wet Rosie.

Sonic didn't stick around to see if Julayla would get punished. She got up and ran off before anyone could stop her, breaking the sound barrier without even trying.

It was just like any other time she had gone for a run in this crazy week. She had no set destination, she was only _running._ Maybe she'd stop in a few minutes, maybe in half an hour. She just didn't care about little details like that and she kept her mind on the more important aspects.

The way her heart kept a steady beat even while it sped up. The way her legs pounded on the pavement, but at the same time felt like she was just gliding through the air.  
>The wind in her quills, pushing against her with all its might only to be overwhelmed and pushed aside. The rush of air into her body and the small whoosh it made on the way back out. Finally, that feeling coursing through her entire body from head to toe and everywhere inbetween!<p>

Sonic the Hedgehog felt free.

Her feet were little geniuses! They took her to the castle and she already knew what she wanted to do. Waiting now seemed pointless, even if she ran into more robots because she left early.

"Are you sure you don't want to spend more time with your friends?" King Max questioned her.

"I'm sure!" Sonic groaned for the fifth time. Would he just let her leave already?

"Alright, remember to be back in a week, sooner if you run into trouble." The King reminded her. She promised once again to be careful and even threw in a joke about talking to strange robots.

When she darted out of the city, she never suspected what would happen to his royal majesty while she was gone.

Sonic darted through the forest faster than the eye could track. She slowed to a more manageable pace when she found a place that looked familiar. Sure enough, there was the path that led to the lake of rings! Sonic grinned when she remembered running with one of those.

She went to the lake and found a ring just lying there, innocently setting the water aglow. She looked at the water's edge uncertainly for a moment before shaking herself and walking over. She didn't have to get in! She didn't have to do anything but reach in and grab that awesome ring!

Even so, she closed her eyes before reaching forward. When her fingers brushed the ring, she lifted it up and placed it inside the backpack she was carrying. The same one from when she was escaping from her burnt out village.

Sonic started running again, out of the forest and far past the Great Plains. When she reached a mountainous area to the north, she slowed down. The camp was supposed to be around here somewhere, now all she had to do was find it, then figure out how many mobians were there and how heavily guarded it was.

She didn't find it for another two _whole hours_! When she looked down the outcrop to the prison below, she shivered. Something about the prison screamed wrong to her, and she soon saw why.

A door opened and out walked a hedgehog. Her eyes widened and she nearly stood up and called out to him in joy. What stopped her was when the cloud cover blew away and the sun reflected off his skin. His metallic skin.

Sonic clasped a hand tightly over her mouth to stop the scream. When she had calmed down, she looked down again to see the Hedgehog was gone. She didn't know who he was, maybe he was from her village, but she knew _what_ he was.

"Roboticization." She knew. Once that must have been a normal hedgehog kind mobian. Once he must have been flesh and blood! Sonic forced herself to take a deep breath and ran a hand through her quills.

"There are mobians here that could be roboticized at any minute." She muttered suddenly. Her eyes narrowed and she felt something like anger flooding through her veins. This wasn't anger though, and it wasn't adrenaline, the name of that energy giving stuff. Sonic knew what she was feeling.

Sonic the Hedgehog, the new Blue Blur, felt loathing for the first time.

She stood suddenly, she took a runner's stance, and then bolted for the door. Halfway before reaching it she upped the volume. The boom made her smirk in confidence as she curled up and cut through the metal door without a problem.

She went through another stone wall before stopping. Shakily she got to her feet and looked around. Already alarms were blaring and a flashing red light was going off. She was in a hallway.

"Helloooo?" She drawled. Where were the cells? Hmm, if she were cells where would she be?

She didn't have a lot of time to wonder because a door at the end of the hall opened and more swatbots poured out. She huffed arrogantly before charging at them. She dodged the bullets they fired and ripped through three of them before they could adjust their aim.

"What's going on here!" She uncurled and looked up to see someone weird. It was a he, had an orange mustache, was bald, and very tall and very fat! It was also wearing strange red and black clothing and didn't have a snout or a beak that she could see.

"Ancients! What did Robotnik do to you?" She cried in horror, believing the fat mobian to be a result of some kind of horrendous experiment.

"Foolish vermin! I _am_ Dr. Robotnik!" He shouted at her, sending a wave of new robots to terminate the little welp. She must've escaped from one of the cells.

Sonic took one look at the mini army of swatbots charging at her with guns blazing before turning and taking off in another direction. The sound of the boom behind her brought a feeling of security. She curled up and burst through another wall, entering a larger and circular room.

Inside were giant bird like things and more robots. Sonic spun at an angle and climbed up the wall. She spun round and round to gain momentum before coming back down on the robot army, her now razor sharp quills cutting through them like butter.

When she was forced to come to a stop, only a few of the swatbots were left standing and they were all missing limbs. She had to take a second to let her head figure out that she had stopped spinning before she could dart off into another side exit to the large room.

This time she found the cells. Inside were many mobians, mostly children though. She stopped in front of a cell that had an armadillo and a squirrel inside.

"Are you the reason the place is going bonkers?" The armadillo questioned her gruffly.

"Probably. I kinda tore through a bunch of that weird guy's toys. Do you know where the keys are?" She asked him. He shook his head and she sighed. She was really starting to get dizzy but it couldn't be helped.

"Hey everybody! Back away from the cell doors!" She shouted a warning before curling up. She began to spin in place, causing dust to rise in the air. She heard people shuffling back as far as they could go, before she released the handbrakes and went flying.

The bars were iron and she cut through them quickly enough. After acting as a mobian pinball though, she was a little bruised. She came to a halt and had to rest one hand against the wall to satisfy herself that the world wasn't spinning. She hoped she got used to that feeling, otherwise her spin crash move was going to be so much trouble!

"Hey, think you could do something like that for these?" She turned slightly to see the armadillo boy holding out his arms. They were encased in a pair of cuffs that gave off a strange yellow light.

She looked at them for a second before she turned her head and motioned for him to cut them off using her quills. He nodded and she began vibrating to speed up the process and give her quills that property that let her cut through steel.

"Done." He had accidently cut himself a little, but it was only a papercut. Especially compared to what might happen to him if they didn't get the heck out of there! Now he could use his super strength without being hindered.

Sonic groaned as she felt her quills cut into her clothes a little. She just bought those! Dang it, she needed to get some quill proof clothes but they didn't make any her size!

The mobians had already started getting out through a hole in the wall. Sonic could see some target practice in her future, if she survived anyway.

"Let's get out of here before I lose my breakfast." Sonic groaned, holding her turvy topsy tummy. She had just found the exit when she was pulled away from the stampeding prisoners by the Armadillo.

"Wait! Listen, there's a girl named Fiona Fox! She was taken away just a few minutes before you showed up!" The armadillo boy informed her, pulling her in the opposite direction of the exit.

"Well let's put on some juice! I'm called Sonic! Nice to meet you!" She shouted as they continued running. Their progress was only slightly hindered by the many swatbots and robot mobians that roamed the halls.

"I'm Mighty and this is Ray!" He responded, following as best he could with her insane pace. He had super strength, why would it be strange for a hedgehog girl to have super speed?

They did burst into a lab but Robotnik held Fiona at gunpoint. Sonic could smell burning rubber when she came to a screeching halt. She eyed the gun in the good doctor's hands, inwardly blaming it for not being able to save the girl.

"Fiona and I will be leaving, unhindered, or the girl's brains paint this laboratory!" Robotnik growled. His precious work camp had been run over, by a meer child? A little hedgehog girl?

"Let her go Buttnik." Sonic growled, narrowing her eyes and feeling her quills all sharpen to a point. Yeah, she'd definitely be needing a new outfit after this was over.

"I think not vermin." The good doctor snarled back. He stepped into a carrier, making sure they could always see the gun and a crying Fiona. The carrier powered up and started flying. Sonic waited for him to take controls, believing that once he was off the ground he was safe.

When she saw it through the window, she turned to Mighty.

"Throw me." She didn't wait for an answer and only curled into a tight ball. She felt herself be picked up and thrown. When she hit the carrier she uncurled and immediately latched onto a part of the landing gear.

"What? Why you no good rat!" Robotnik yelled when he saw his passenger. Luckily, Fiona had not been restrained. She picked up the gun and opened the door. She nodded in thanks to Sonic, who was already letting go.

When Fiona cleared the carrier, Sonic released her grip on the vehicle. Robotnik, in his rage, grabbed hold of her right arm though. She gasped and looked up at the man.

The carrier kept tilting from side to side without a driver and Sonic was the only one of the two to see where they were heading. Straight to the outcrop, the very rocky and steep, outcrop.

All Sonic could think was that they were going to die and it would probably be very painful. Her heart was hammering in her chest and she knew from Robotnik's outraged screams that he had seen what was happening as well. Another clue was when he let go.

Sonic began free falling. She managed to turn her body to face the incoming ground. Her heart was beating a thousand times a minute and she couldn't help but wonder if falling to her death would hurt.

Sonic closed her eyes and felt her few tears being whipped away by the gale force. She'd be going to meet her family soon. Her body slowly started to relax as she thought about rejoining her family in death. She wondered what they would think of her quills.

Then she remembered something. She remembered something her uncle told her.

"Serina, you don't have to be more hedgehog like." Uncle Charley's real named was Charles. He was super smart and invented lots of stuff! She hadn't seen him since before he vanished though. Maybe Robotnik roboticized him. She hated to think that.

"You only have to be more Serina like. If Serina likes being loud, then let her be loud." Now her name was Sonic, but the same principle applied right? She didn't have to be so accepting of whatever came her way, like hedgehogs. Sonic the Hedgehog took her fate into her own hands!

Sonic's eyes snapped back open to greet the rapidly approaching ground. She reached behind her and took out the golden ring she got from the lake. She took it, curled up, and began to spin.

When she hit the ground she knew she had created a crator but she honestly didn't care. She only kept spinning until she was moving forward again, breaking the barrier almost without realizing.

When she got back to her feet she saw the carrier getting out of sight. She could catch up and follow it on foot, it would be all too easy in fact. However she had something more important to deal with. She would find Fiona and then find the other prisoner's like Mighty and Ray.

She found Fiona half way through and convinced her to ride piggy back so they could get to the lab. Sonic came to a halt again and took a second to enjoy the smell of burnt rubber coming from the soles of her shoes. She'd probably have to buy a new pair, but she liked the stench.

Then she looked at the laboratory that was up in flames. People were running from it in all directions, but she didn't see Mighty or Ray anywhere in the crowd.

"Where are they?" Fiona asked, still looking all around the grounds. Sonic was looking at the fires from the lab though. Something told her she knew where they were.

"Fiona, get off my back." The fox girl didn't ask any questions but looked like she had a few when Sonic glimpsed her face before running off. Sonic cleared the flames without getting burned. She was moving too fast to be burned.

"Mighty! Ray!" She called loudly, running down the halls and trying to find the lab through the confusion of smoke and flames. She finally found it. Inside Mighty was trying to pull Ray the flying squirrel away from a magic crystal thing trying to suck them both inside.

Sonic blinked and had to take a slow look around.

"Something tells me we're not on Mobius anymore."

**YAYS! END OF CHAPTER AND NOW TO DO SOMETHING ELSE! I SHALL DO SOMETHING ELSE NOW!**

LC; Okay then, off to do other things!

Sonic; Like what?

Tails; Hey, this fic doesn't have any reviews? None at all?

LC; Yeah, and that pisses me off like nothing else.

Sonic; Come on people! This is an awesome story! All we want are a few reviews!

LC; In case you were not aware, it's the blue button at the bottom of the screen!

Tails; Go ahead and click it! You'll be able to tell us how you like it so far!

LC; Yeah! Do you like the events? Any changes you want made? Any mistakes I made that you want me to fix?

Sonic; Review within the next ten days and LC will personally respond to your reviews!


End file.
